day 40. boulder, co to estes park, co. 35 miles.

a short day and a solid warm-up for trail ridge road. only 35 miles and 3500 vertical feet of climbing to be had to reach estes park, co.

there were three of us today. an old pal, paul, and a new one, craig. it was awesome to have people along for the ride. actual conversation was nice for a change. the two rode as far as they could but both had to turn back early. i'm pretty sure they had sand in something and wimped out. nah, i kid. they have these things known as jobs and had to return to them. thanks for cruising fellas.

after some lightning, that flashed directly overhead, followed instantaneously by thunder, and some rainfall and climbing, i descended into estes park. elk run this town. no joke. you can find them all over the place. even chillin next to busy roadways. majestic giants that taste delicious.

i rolled into the sponsored, elk meadows lodge, where an apt style home was waiting. shortly after settling in, a reporter came over from the estes park trail gazette or something of the like. its nice to see someone interested again after weeks of nada. not even my hometown paper gave a shit. negativity rules the headlines these days. if you're like me and are interested in good, check out newsforgood.com. good folks over there.

as the sun sat, i sat staring at the continental divide, a bit nervous about the next day and the climb ahead, wondering if my previous month of work had been enough.